'The Russian government shuttering the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is, indeed, nothing extraordinary these days. It’s merely one of a great number of steps the government has taken in recent years to crack down on the Russian human rights movement and close space for freedom of expression and nongovernmental organizations. Put bluntly, Russia’s human rights movement is hanging by a thread. State and pro-government media often equate criticism of the government with disloyalty or treachery. The government has branded as “foreign agents”—which in Russia means “traitor’ or “spy” – more than 100 nongovernmental groups that advocated for change and had accepted even a kopek of foreign funding. The government has vehemently rejected equality for LGBT people. And it has moved to thwart victims of human rights violations from finding justice through international bodies, when the Russian court system doesn’t deliver it.'